{"id":10405,"date":"2018-06-21T17:00:43","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T11:15:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=10405"},"modified":"2018-06-21T17:00:43","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T11:15:43","slug":"meet-the-disabled-trans-model-whos-here-to-dominate-the-fashion-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/meet-the-disabled-trans-model-whos-here-to-dominate-the-fashion-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Disabled Trans Model Who’s Here to DOMINATE the Fashion World"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Kathmandu (Pahichan) June 21 – If you catch yourself walking down the sultry, sticky streets of Manhattan this summer, don\u2019t be surprised if a literal blonde goddess rolls past you in her wheelchair. 17-year-old Aaron Philip (pronounced A-Ron) who uses both they\/them and she\/her pronouns, is a disabled, gender-nonconforming, femme model, and she lit up Twitter last November with flawless photos and an instantly iconic\u00a0tweet<\/a>: \u201chonestly when i get scouted\/discovered by a modeling agency it\u2019s OVER for y\u2019all! By y\u2019all I mean the WORLD! It\u2019s real inclusivity\/diversity hours folks, get into it!\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\"Aaron<\/picture>
Sweater By Burberry, Turtleneck Top (Worn Underneath) By Helmut Lang, Ring By Faith Connexion X Chrishabana<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The result? Twitter got ALL the way in. Their photos were retweeted more than 20,000 times and garnered over 80,000 likes in addition to hundreds of positive responses. People clearly fell in love with Aaron\u2019s signature style and the overflowing positivity that radiates from her photos. As a\u00a0Black, disabled queer<\/a>\u00a0myself, I was enthralled, so I\u00a0had<\/em>\u00a0to chat with the rising social media star. Much like their unconventional style, Aaron is spontaneous in conversation, full of laughter, and quick to give a compliment. Her consistent dreams of grandeur and fame take a back seat to her compassion and genuine desire to help others, especially through her work.<\/p>\n

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\"Aaron<\/picture>
Dress By Gucci, Fishnet Top (Worn Underneath) By Kozaburo, Necklace By Arielle De Pinto<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After immigrating to the Bronx from her warm island of Antigua at the age of three, Aaron grew up longing for representation of disabled people in popular media. Living with quadriplegic cerebral palsy, Aaron recalls feeling proud and inspired when she first came across the 2015 Kylie Jenner cover of Interview Magazine, which featured Jenner\u00a0posed in a golden wheelchair<\/a>. \u201cWhen I was younger\u2026I was excited about the image and representation [disabled people] were getting because we just saw a wheelchair in general,\u201d she tells me, \u201cBut I didn\u2019t know how to take it, because I didn\u2019t see that she was using our image to fetishize us. [Later] I was thinking,\u00a0Where were all the other people with disabilities in chairs in the shoot?<\/em>\u00a0[\u2026] Perhaps if [Jenner] had a say in the creative direction, she could\u2019ve spoken up about it if she knew better \u2014 but I\u2019m not even sure she did. I think some people are given a platform and don\u2019t know what to do with it.\u201d But if Kylie Jenner didn\u2019t know how to promote inclusion on her platform a few years ago, today, Aaron Philip certainly does.<\/p>\n

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\"Aaron<\/picture>
Top By Helmut Lang, Pants By Gogo Graham, Boots By John Fluevog, Necklace And rings by Jane D\u2019arensbourg and Jennifer Fisher<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u201cI wanted to be a star,\u201d Aaron tells me. \u201cI really wanted to get some headshots done so I could apply to agencies, but after sending them out, I wasn\u2019t getting the feedback or response I wanted. So I decided to head to Twitter and said, \u2018Twitter, do your magic. Do your thing.\u2019 I had the intention of making\u00a0that post<\/a>, but I didn\u2019t expect it to blow up the way it did\u2026[with] that amount of attention and success.\u201d<\/p>\n

For people like Aaron, the fashion industry isn\u2019t evolving fast enough. Despite the fact that disabled people make up\u00a015 percent of the global population<\/a>, disability continues to be a frustratingly taboo topic when it comes to\u00a0discussions of diversity<\/a>, fashion, and beauty. \u201cWe\u2019re being neglected in the space of beauty,\u201d Aaron tells me. \u201c[I think that the industry has] an obligation to create spaces that are accessible, clean, open, and well thought out for people that aren\u2019t able-bodied.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Aaron<\/picture>
Top By Helmut Lang, Necklace And Rings by Jane D\u2019arensbourg and Jennifer Fisher<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Aaron isn\u2019t the first disabled model to grace the pages of a magazine, but she is part of a cohort of models and performers with disabilities like\u00a0Jillian Mercado<\/a>,\u00a0Lauren Wasser<\/a>,\u00a0Ali Stroker<\/a>, and\u00a0R.J. Mitte<\/a>, who are challenging the narratives of what a disabled body looks like, and more importantly, what a disabled body looks like in real life.<\/p>\n

Copy :\u00a0www.them.us<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathmandu (Pahichan) June 21 – If you catch yourself walking down the sultry, sticky streets of Manhattan this summer, don\u2019t be surprised if a literal blonde goddess rolls past you in her wheelchair. 17-year-old Aaron Philip (pronounced A-Ron) who uses both they\/them and she\/her pronouns, is a disabled, gender-nonconforming, femme model, and she lit up Twitter last November with flawless photos and an instantly iconic\u00a0tweet: \u201chonestly when i get scouted\/discovered by a modeling agency it\u2019s OVER for y\u2019all! By y\u2019all I mean the WORLD! It\u2019s real inclusivity\/diversity hours folks, get …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10406,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,621,490,11],"tags":[1804,1805,1803],"class_list":["post-10405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-rights","category-news","category-slider","category-world","tag-disabled","tag-disabled-trans-model","tag-fashion-world"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10407,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10405\/revisions\/10407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}